improved sneak attack

[Terath Ninir]

The Traps & Treachery feat, as Crothian says, isn't unbalancing or even particularly interesting. If it was unbalancing, one of my rogues *would* have taken it, which they never did.

 

[Hodgie]

If the problem is that the opportunity cost is too low, why not make the feat grant you a special attack option wherein this attack (and only one attack) increases the damage die by one step. That way you could have the spring attack rogue who makes a single devestating attack, the sniper rogue who focuses for one horrid blow, or the regular rogue who throws everything into that one shot when he knows his iteratives won't strike.

 

[Rystil Arden]

If the problem is that the opportunity cost is too low, why not make the feat grant you a special attack option wherein this attack (and only one attack) increases the damage die by one step. That way you could have the spring attack rogue who makes a single devestating attack, the sniper rogue who focuses for one horrid blow, or the regular rogue who throws everything into that one shot when he knows his iteratives won't strike.

I think that's another good balancing factor.

 

[silvermane]

This feat (Improved Sneak Attack) may be unbalanced, but it has minor significance even in combat.

Unless you're building a perfect assassin you probably wouldn't bother taking it. And even assassins have better options when it comes to dispatching the target (poison, paralysis, spells). Remember that executing a helpless opponent is much easier than setting up a sneak attack opportunity. Which the DM can manipulate anyway by using creatures with all-around vision (no flanking = no sneak attacks), constructs and undead.

 

[glass]

I agree wit those who have said that at one feat per die, the feat is weak. I'd go as far as to say, incredibly weak.

I think one feat for all sneak attack dice is a little strong. Probably not gamebreakingly so, but I'd still prefer a chain. However, I don't like chains that go 'bad feat' - 'good feat'. Why not make the first feat affect the first 5 sneak attack dice, and the second extend the effect to all of them.

That way, the first feat is worth taking in it's own right and doesn't seem like an artifical cost (Favoured of the Companions et al, I'm looking at you), but it still required two feats to get the full monte.

EDIT: Woohoo! My 500th post

glass.

 

[Nifft]

One last thought, not quite off topic:

Psi Sneaky Strike [Psionic]
Benefit: By expending your psionic focus, you can convert your sneak attack dice from Xd6 to Xd10. You must expend your psionic focus before rolling attack; if you miss, oh well, sucks for you.

-- N

 

[Rystil Arden]

One last thought, not quite off topic:

Psi Sneaky Strike [Psionic]
Benefit: By expending your psionic focus, you can convert your sneak attack dice from Xd6 to Xd10. You must expend your psionic focus before rolling attack; if you miss, oh well, sucks for you.

-- N

Psi Sneaky Strike probably needs to have a prerequisite feat of some sort. Otherwise, it compares too favourably to Psionic Weapon. Of course, the prereq should do something useful or else PSS might not compare favourably to GPW (PSS will do more damage than even GPW for some characters, but it only works on SAs).

 

[Nightcloak]

I agree wit those who have said that at one feat per die, the feat is weak. I'd go as far as to say, incredibly weak.

I think one feat for all sneak attack dice is a little strong. Probably not gamebreakingly so, but I'd still prefer a chain. However, I don't like chains that go 'bad feat' - 'good feat'. Why not make the first feat affect the first 5 sneak attack dice, and the second extend the effect to all of them.

That way, the first feat is worth taking in it's own right and doesn't seem like an artifical cost (Favoured of the Companions et al, I'm looking at you), but it still required two feats to get the full monte.

As I was reading this thread, I had the same thought. Just turn it into two usefull feats that compliment each other. One being an improved version of the other a.k.a. feats that are improvable in AE.

EDIT: Woohoo! My 500th post

Congrats!

 

[Terath Ninir]

One last thought, not quite off topic:

Psi Sneaky Strike [Psionic]
Benefit: By expending your psionic focus, you can convert your sneak attack dice from Xd6 to Xd10. You must expend your psionic focus before rolling attack; if you miss, oh well, sucks for you.

-- N

Since I won't even look at the new PsiHB, I have no idea what a psi focus is, but I love this feat anyway. I wish more of 'em were written like that.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Since I won't even look at the new PsiHB, I have no idea what a psi focus is, but I love this feat anyway. I wish more of 'em were written like that.

Psifocus is a state you enter by making a Concentration check. If you like this concept and wish there were more feats, then ironically you should probably swallow your pride and read the new XPH (or at least the Psionics SRD) because that's what most of the XPH feats are like. Its really much better than the 3.0 one